After slinging running shoes for half a century, Greg Baum has exited the run specialty game. Baum, who opened Flying Feet Sports Shoes in York, PA, in 1982 after seven years of peddling shoes to local coaches and athletes from his car and home, retired at the end of 2024 and closed the family-owned business.
One of the run specialty marketplace’s true patriarchs, Baum recently sat with Running Insight senior writer Danny Smith to reflect on a 50-year career that started with a white lie, flourished with a customer-centric focus and closed with pride.
Back in 1975, Baum was a few seasons into coaching high school cross-country at York County Vocational Technical School and bemoaned the canvas shoes on his runners’ feet. Unable to get quality running shoes locally, he called New Balance, “lied through [his] teeth” and told them he was opening a store. He became a dealer and purchased dozens of shoes up front, selling the excess to other local coaches and members of the York Road Runners Club. "You couldn't do that today. Really, you shouldn’t have done it then, either. But it was a different time.”
After more than a decade of coaching harriers, Baum became the school’s athletic director. But the new position frustrated, and he left after three years. He returned to teaching mathematics and also focused on growing his footwear-peddling side business into a full-fledged retail operation in 1982. “I never intended to get into the retail business, but I needed to do something to support the family.” He continued teaching for the next 20 years, while his wife, Celine, and first employee, Mary Silar, oversaw retail operations during the day.
Baum opened the original Flying Feet in a 435-square-foot storefront alongside three other little shops. “And we thought that would be plenty of room.” It wasn’t, of course, even in the fledgling days of run specialty. Over the years, Baum expanded, relocated and continued gobbling up additional space. At the time of Baum’s retirement, Flying Feet’s retail operation covered 3500-square feet.
Being an educator, coach and administrator, Baum had relationships with coaches and athletes across the county and its 14 schools, which spurred Flying Feet’s movement into other athletic categories. Baum stocked gear for wrestling, field hockey, swimming, volleyball and cheerleading. He also dabbled in team sports, including football, basketball and soccer. All along, though, he embraced specialty. “We touted function and fit. As shoes changed and became more specialized, more technical, we tried to offer that level of expertise as well. Our quality staff were knowledgeable about what we sold.”
Despite his success with Flying Feet, Baum never seriously considered opening a second store. “Not on your life. I had enough with one.”
Baum describes himself as “not a great businessman.” His secret sauce, then, for long-term retail success? “I know how to take care of people and that's what we did. We gave the right product and the right fit at the best price we could. My employees knew I didn't want them to sell something if it wasn't appropriate. I was absolutely adamant about that. We were fair and honest, and coaches, doctors and our own customers sent people our way because they trusted us.”
While Flying Feet weathered the pandemic, Baum admits changes in the business environment, particularly evolving relationships with vendors and sales reps as well as a shortage of employees, began to wear on him. “I still enjoyed dealing with the customer, solving a person's problem, but the other things were starting to add up.”
Still, Baum was not preparing for retirement. Celine, however, was. “She saw the strain. Push came to shove, and she gave me a deadline.” And Baum, 75 years old and working upwards of 60 hours a week, eventually relented. “I was never a guy who could hand the key to someone else and detach from the business. But I was feeling old and running out of gas.”
Ultimately, Baum and Celine closed Flying Feet at the end of 2024. Fleet Feet franchisees Shelby and Fred Joslyn, operators of stores in Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg, PA, were eager to expand into the York market and worked a deal with Baum’s former landlord to take over Flying Feet’s long-time storefront. “They purchased our running and walking inventory, too.”
Baum spent the early weeks of 2025 visiting his old retail shop to tie up loose ends. He sold store fixtures and shelving, found a home for inventory not purchased by the Joslyns and filtered through an assortment of items collected over five decades in business. “It's all different and that's okay. I’m proud of the good job we did for a long time.”
Admittedly, adjusting to retirement has been a challenge for Baum, even as he’s gained additional time to devote to other interests like gardening, singing in the church choir and enjoying quality time with Celine and his dog, Duffy. Flying Feet brought magic and energy. He relished conversations with customers about shared interests. He enjoyed activity swirling around him, from new cross-country runners buying their first spikes to a recreational runner pursuing her first 5K. “I look back at businesses I frequented in my lifetime and there's a hole when those go away. This hole is just a little bigger. I’m going to miss it.”
